Does anyone speak french here?

T1mothy

Its been over a year since I acquired my very first manouche guitar and my friend who also plays guitar has been growing to like the tone ever since. Now we both live in Europe and he s looking for a used guitar. I was wondering how much can a used Dupont Nomade be gotten for? And is there anyone among you who can orient himself on the french second hand market? I heard about lebcoin website and tried but unsuccesfully.
Have a good one,
Timothy

Jazzaferri

Good advice @stuart

Kevin Furniss

I speak o.k french and keep my eye on leboincoin - but its a bit hit and miss thay seem to come in waves - in the past I have seen nomades for around the 700€ mark - next time I see decent guitars locally im going to buy them - and take a trunk full of them to samois to fund my break

Nejc

Maybe something like that? :
http://www.leboncoin.fr/instruments_de_musique/864615366.htm?ca=7_s
http://www.leboncoin.fr/instruments_de_musique/865847937.htm?ca=7_s

But like stuart said, Its such a niche market that there is a chance that you are gonna wait a while for a nomade to pop up for sale.

Nejc

Here is a short video just to get the idea of the sound:

spud

Nejc wrote: »

Here is a short video just to get the idea of the sound:

haha that's my guitar! its one of the gallato's made by mateos, so it's more expensive than the later series.
frankly i am not too impressed with the nomade - i think the ciganos sound better and are MUCH less expensive.
sometimes with "le bon coin" people outside of france having trouble getting their messages through.
but its always a risk to buy a guitar without testing it first.
if you ever get to paris there is a shop in the suburbs called "guitare village"- they have a good rotation of second hand guitars.
http://www.guitare-village.com/occasion/jazz/jazz.php

T1mothy

Thanks for the info. Its just that the reviews on ciganos and gitanes vary so badly with many often needing setup right after being delivered I was rather unsure about these. And the duponts are told to be delivering the sound with jsut less bling and less finish on it. My friend and I might be getting to Paris to look for a used one soon actually. That Angelo Debarre Gallato sounds really nice. Do any other guitars come to your minds in the sub 1000 euro range?

NylonDave

I think there are two kinds of guitars. Guitars that you have played and mystery guitars. If a factory makes a run of guitars then ten percent will be terrible eighty representative of the quality of that line and maybe ten percent will be great. The only way to get to one of the great guitars is to play them, or to ask a more experienced guitarist (who doesn't work in the shop or isn't a friend of the seller) to tell you. A video tells you absolutely nothing about the quality of the guitar. It can tell you a lot about the acoustic of the recording area and the quality of the recording device and more still about the player. It will however tell you nothing about the guitar.

ChrisMartin

I second NylonDave's comments re guitars on video. Also, bear in mind every time such a question is asked on here (or anywhere else) there is no accounting for personal preferences. So if you ask a simple question, some will prefer Gitane, some Nomade, and some will offer an alternative that they prefer. It is hard to overcome our own perceptions of the value of a 'name' and probably the only real way to judge would be comparing guitars blindfolded.
Even in the vintage market, the values of Selmers, Busatos and Favinos do not so much reflect their musical worth as the fact that they were the big names in their day, and are no longer made (not counting J-P Favino) and therefore there will always be a limited supply. On the other hand a mass produced instrument will never have that rarity and will be perceived to be cheaper, therefore inferior. For most of us, the ideal is probably a hand-made guitar at a reasonable price that falls somewhere between those two extremes.
As for getting to Paris, there are plenty of shops to call on, and a wide variety of guitars to try, it has been said on here by others many times before, but you will just 'know' when you are holding the right one.
As for LeBonCoin, yes, there are many apparently interesting guitars advertised, but most do ask for cash on collection rather than offering to ship, and even then you have no protection from potential scams unless you collect in person.

Kevin Furniss

I thought it was just me who didnt get the guitar/video thing and the fact its got to be nearly useless apart from for aesthetics and fret buzz maybe.
But I suppose multiple guitars recorded under the same conditions a la djangobooks may be more useful.

ChrisMartin

Yes, well I think Michael has been doing it long enough to know how to record in comparable conditions, ie, microphones/room acoustics/pick attack baseline to at least give a meaningful comparison, but the odd amateur on Youtube video tells little about the guitar, apart, as you say, from the look of it. Maybe that is enough for some?